A group of researchers from
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have created an app that
transforms a smartphone into a 3D scanner. All you need to do is hold your
smartphone facing any object whatsoever and move around it. The app will then
create a 3D image, adding more details as the smartphone moves around the
object and records different angles. The app reconstructs a 3D representation
based on a very high number of photos taken from different viewpoints by the
phone’s in-built camera. The app also uses the smartphone’s accelerometer to
determine the angle and position of the photos, or the scaling required.